play (a game of) cat and mouse

idiom

: to engage in behavior that is like the way a cat chases a mouse or plays with a mouse before killing it

—used especially to describe behavior in which someone says or does different things to deceive or control other people, to avoid being caught, etc.

The governor has been playing (a game of) cat and mouse with the media, refusing to say definitely whether he will run for reelection.

Examples of play (a game of) cat and mouse in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Streaming providers constantly play cat and mouse with VPN servers that attempt to get around their geoblocking, but NordVPN is one of the best at circumvention. —Jon Martindale, Forbes, 24 Feb. 2021